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TMA Legislative
News Hotline
Monday, May
11, 2009
To ensure our emails reach
your inbox, please add tmainfo@texmed.org to your address book.
Only 21 days left in the 2009 legislative session; last day for the
House committees to report House bills and House joint resolutions
Health Insurance Reform Bills Up Today
The Senate State Affairs Committee is taking up two bills important to TMA's
health insurance reform campaign, Patients' Right to Know. Charlotte
Smith, MD, a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician from Austin,
will testify on behalf of TMA in support of both of these:
- Senate Bill 714 by Sen.
Leticia Van de Putte (D-San Antonio), which would put into place a
much-needed law to regulate companies or networks that sell, lease, or
share physician discounts without the physicians' knowledge or
expressed authority. The companion legislation is House Bill 223 by
Rep. Craig Eiland (D-Galveston). The House Insurance Committee has not
passed HB 223 out of its committee yet.
- HB 1888 by Rep. John Davis
(R-Houston), which would require standards for certain ranking of
physicians by health benefit plans. TMA is asking committee members to
ensure that any physician ranking system uses accurate physician data,
allows the due process for physicians to occur prior to the publication
of their ranking, and uses measurement standards that are reliable,
evidence-based, and consistent across all health plans in the market.
By now, you should have received Patients' Right to Know materials
to post in your waiting and exam rooms. Please ask your patients to join the
grassroots action campaign to reform health insurance. We still need you and
your patients help to get these bills moved through the House and to the
governor's desk. Stay tuned for talking points and specific action to take
over the next week.
TMA Works to Preserve Physicians' Clinical Autonomy
The House County Affairs Committee will take up SB 1500 by Sen. Robert
Duncan (R-Lubbock) today. The measure would allow rural hospitals to
directly employ physicians. At the same time, more than 20 local bills -
each addressing the same issue for individual hospital districts - are
pending before the committee.
SB 1500, as passed by the Senate, 22-7, would allow the following
hospitals to directly employ physicians:
- Critical-access
hospitals - 75 of the state's smallest facilities in very small towns
in rural Texas;
- Sole community
hospitals - an additional 60 hospitals, some of which are in larger
communities and may have 30 or 40 physicians on staff; and
- Hospitals in counties
of 50,000 population or less. This category would comprise hospitals in
about 140 of the state's 254 counties, many of which are covered in the
previous two categories.
TMA has opposed SB 1500 in its original form because the application of
the bill is too broad and the protections of clinical autonomy - the heart
of the patient-physician relationship - are too limited. However, in
response to the need for good public policy that recognizes the needs of
rural physicians, patients, and hospitals, TMA has offered amendments
to SB 1500 that provide protections of physicians' clinical autonomy within
a framework that allows the option of direct employment in Texas communities
that are having the most difficult time attracting physicians to their area.
Bills on House Third Reading Today
Of note are several pieces of legislation heard on second reading Friday
that TMA has been working on, including:
- HB 2256 by Rep. Kelly
Hancock (R-North Richland Hills), which establishes requirements for
mediation in certain situations involving facility-based,
out-of-network physicians and authorizes the commissioner of insurance
to establish local network adequacy standards;
- HB 1357 by Rep. Carl
Isett (R-Lubbock) that establishes licensure requirements for
free-standing emergency facilities and sets out requirements for 24/7
operations and the use of the term "emergency"; and
- SB 61 by Sen. Judith
Zaffirini (D-Laredo) and sponsored by Rep. Allen Vaught (D-Dallas),
which establishes requirements defined by the American Academy of
Pediatrics for booster seats for children.
A number of other pieces of legislation also are on today's Senate Intent
Calendar or on second reading in the House, particularly HB 2154 by Rep. Al
Edwards (D-Houston) relating to enhancing the physician loan repayment
program by adding a $35 surcharge to the physician licensure fee. An
amendment to potentially add the smokeless tobacco tax is being contemplated
as well. Stay tuned.
Physician of the Day
J. Mike White, MD, a family physician from Joshua, is today's physician
of the day. He graduated from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical
Center in 1975. He is a member of TMA and Johnson County Medical Society.
The Physician of the Day program is coordinated by the Texas Academy of
Family Physicians.
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